Love Is Hell Item Preview. By Ryan Adams. Eye 1,026 favorite 0 comment 0.

Like any album, comes with a back-story, one that is carefully calculated to construct the enfant terrible's self-myth. Was intended to be the official follow-up to 2001's -- the album that was not a collection of demos (that was 2002's ), or the recorded-but-shelved albums 48 Hours or The Suicide Handbook, or even his alleged song-by-song cover of '. Longtime fan that he is, teamed up with -- the man who produced,, and part of -- with the intention of creating his own mope-rock album, hence the title. Americana label that it is, Lost Highway balked at releasing a stylized tribute to Mancunian rainy-day bedsit music and didn't release it, encouraging to record a different album, presumably one more in line with the label's taste. In the press and on the web, our hero spread stories about how the label claimed it was 'too depressing' and 'dark,' thereby cultivating the myth that he's a maverick genius, while the label cheerfully countered with the defense that it just knew that our boy could do better.

Gta Long Night Zombie City Pc on this page. Eventually, a compromise was arranged: kicked out a new album, the self-descriptive, while releasing the equally self-descriptive as two EPs, the first hitting the streets the same day as the 'official' album, the second arriving a month later. Five months after that, the full-length, containing both EPs plus 'Anybody Wanna Take Me Home' from, was released, negating the worth of the individual EPs (which were, after all, merely two halves of one album) and likely irritating legions of fans who bought both EPs. While it took longer than necessary to have the whole bloody affair of released as its own entity, it's hard not to view it as a companion piece to, particularly because they're two sides of the same coin. In effect, both and are tribute albums, each a conscious aping of a style and sound, both designed to showcase how versatile and masterful is. But since he's a synthesist more than a stylist,, for all his bluster, winds up as a Zelig-styled character, taking on the characteristics of the artists he's emulating -- something that can be sonically pleasurable, but far from being the substantive work of mad genius that he relentlessly sells himself as.

If has the edge over, it's because it's more carefully considered in its production and writing, and he manages to hide his allusions better than he does on, where every title and chord progression plays like an homage. Here, he shoots for and winds up in territory tempered with a dash of circa. To claim that it is a dark affair is to criticize its milieu more than its substance, because the songs have the form and feel of brooding, atmospheric mope-rock, not the blood and guts of the music. Is fairly adept at crafting that mood -- anybody who's such a fan of rock history should be -- sometimes relying more on a blend of attitude and atmosphere instead of songwriting. Such is the fate of a stylized tribute to a style with specific sonic attributes, but also does come up with a clutch of effective songs: the epic sprawl of 'Political Scientist,' which captures him at his best; the title track, which is nearly anthemic with its ringing guitars; the understated 'World War 24'; the gently propulsive 'This House Is Not for Sale,' which would fit nicely between a and track on a college radio show from the late '80s. 'English Girls Approximately' is an effective and fusion, and the closer, 'Hotel Chelsea Nights,' is one of his best songs, a mildly anthemic soulful anthem with vague overtones of 'Purple Rain.' Nevertheless, it's telling that the best song here is a cover of ' 'Wonderwall.'